Zeal-Zealot
Psa. 119:139 “My
zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.”
ZEALOT (Zihl' uht) Roman rule, though deeply resented in Palestine, allowed
much leeway in private matters. Merchants were free to trade and prosper,
landowners to administer their estates, local fishermen and farmers to conduct
their affairs as they saw fit—provided they stayed out of trouble and paid
their share of taxes. Most important, the Judeans and their neighbors enjoyed
freedom of worship and belief. Such
freedom was generally the rule throughout the empire. It was good policy to
allow any religion to be practiced in its land of origin. Some religions,
including Judaism, were allowed to expand to other parts of the empire. Only
when a sect challenged Rome's political power, threatened to disturb public
order, or indulged in outright criminality did the authorities intrude. For
example, they suppressed the criminal rites of the Druids, who practiced human
sacrifice, and they eradicated similar rites of a Phoenician sect who cast
children into the fire. Although the Sadducees and Pharisees were at constant
loggerheads with each other, they presented no threat to the Romans. Each
strove to promote its influence in civic matters and to establish its religious
views as the true standard of devout Judaism, but neither sought to spearhead a
revolt. At the same time, other sects proliferated, ranging from those who
withdrew into solitary asceticism devoted to spiritual life on one extreme to
those who were committed to violent action on behalf of their beliefs on the
other.
The Abominable Census
Periodically, the Romans conducted a census of the male population to
determine their status with regard to citizenship, rank, and taxable property.
Such a tally also served to drive home the point that everyone in the land
belonged to Rome. The census was a blow to Jewish self-esteem and for many an
unbearable denial of their position as a people belonging to God. The Scripture
told of the pestilence that befell the land when even King David carried out a
census, since such an action implied his ownership of the people. What made
the Roman census even worse was that it
was ordered by the Roman emperor Augustus, who was also worshiped as a god in
temples in Caesarea and Sebaste and in other Hellenized towns. For many Jews,
the census came to be seen as enslavement to a mere man claiming to be divine
and imposing his rights in place of the rights of the God of Israel. And so,
when the census takers tried to start work in A.D. 6, trouble erupted, sparked
by a rebel named Judas of Galilee. This Judas was perhaps the same as a Judas
the son of Ezekias who had led one of several popular uprisings a decade
earlier, after the death of Herod the Great. In the power vacuum that had
existed before Rome confirmed the authority of Herod's sons, there had been a
flurry of rebels—popular "kings" and generals who had rallied the
people against Herod's heirs. Varus, the Roman governor of Syria who had been
called upon to put things right, swept through the land with more than two
legions of troops. He easily suppressed the rebels and ultimately crucified
about 2,000 captives. This demonstration of raw power had a great impact; one
Jewish apocalyptic work even saw it as a sign of the end of the world. In his
writings the historian Josephus expressed contempt for these rebel leaders,
whom he called "brigands." Indeed, some may well have been upstart
men of the sword who sensed an opportunity and tried to take advantage of it.
Judas, however, was a clear exception. He was a man of action who was also a
spiritual leader, heir to a long tradition of patriotic fervor combined with
deep religious conviction. It had been his father who had led a partisan revolt
against the last Hasmoneans and their Roman sponsors when the young Herod was
serving as Galilee's administrator. Herod had put down the uprising with such
severity that he himself was brought to trial before the Sanhedrin. Now the
sons of Herod faced the sons of the rebels.
"The Fourth Philosophy"
Spurred by the Roman census, Judas Joined with a Pharisee named Zadok to
form a group that Josephus calls "the fourth philosophy"—following
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Adherents of this new philosophy
resembled Pharisees in most ways, but, Josephus reports, "they have a passion
for liberty that is almost unconquerable, since they are convinced that God
alone is their leader and master." (Today the term Zealot is commonly
applied to all Jewish rebels of the period, but there were actually many
different groups. The Zealots did not come into being until later in the first
century A.D. Their roots, like those of rival rebel movements, reach back to
Judas and his followers.) Both Judas and Zadok were teachers of the Torah as
well as popular leaders. They developed the rationale for resistance to the
Romans that came to be shared by most of the Jewish revolutionary groups of the
time. According to them, paying taxes to Rome was slavery to foreign overlords.
Thus they organized a boycott of the census, which they tried to impose by
force of arms. They believed that though they were responsible for their
actions, God was on their side and would ultimately grant them victory. This
conviction gave them the courage to face overwhelming odds and even death
unafraid. Theirs was also a fight to
preserve the integrity of the faith, and they especially liked to invoke the
memory of the priest Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (Moses' brother). In a
time of crisis, when Phinehas saw Zimri, a lapsed Israelite, brazenly take a
Midianite woman to his tent, he followed them inside and plunged a spear
through both of them. This display of zeal had so pleased God, Scripture
recounts, that he stopped a plague. In spirit, the men of "the fourth
philosophy" also harked back to the Maccabees, whose successful revolt against
the Seleucid kings, begun in 167 B.C., had achieved nearly a century of Judean
independence. "Let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant
come out with me," Mattathias, the Maccabean patriarch, had cried. Farmers
and traders and priests and laborers had flocked to him in the hills to join in
the fight. The lesson of history was clear for Judas. Like slavery in Egypt or
subservience to the Seleucids, collaboration with the Romans was intolerable.
Insofar as the Romans ruled in the land of Israel they were God's enemies—as
was anyone who was willing to accommodate them. The census was a snare,
seemingly harmless, ultimately deadly.
The Rebel Cause
Although the high priest in Jerusalem, a political realist, had told the
people to submit to the Roman requirement, Judas and his followers called upon
them to resist. Their movement spread rapidly in Judea, particularly among the
young. Hiding out in caves and ravines in the eastern mountains, the patriots
would swoop down on traveling officials and small detachments of soldiers.
Wealthy Jewish collaborators lived in terror that their homes would be
ransacked and their lives put in jeopardy.
Eventually Judas was killed—the circumstances are unknown—and history
does not record Zadok's fate. But the movement continued underground, led by
two of Judas' sons. Its members lived their lives according to a strict
interpretation of the Torah. They observed the Sabbath without compromise. They
immersed themselves in ritual baths. And they insisted that to acknowledge
anyone but God as king or lord of Israel was to break the Commandment "You
shall have no other gods before me." Little is known about the followers
of "the fourth philosophy" for four decades after the census. It was
evidently a time of considerable disorganization in which systematic action
against the Romans was rare. Sporadic attacks were carried out by guerrilla
groups living in the hills. When they were caught, the Romans dealt with them
as thieves and bandits. It is conceivable that Barabbas, who was under arrest
at the same time as Jesus, was a member of this group. He is described in Mark
and Luke as a rebel who was trying to stir up insurrection and thus was
probably such a guerrilla fighter. Similarly, the unnamed "thieves"
or "robbers" who were crucified beside Jesus would be more accurately
described as "bandits" or even "insurrectionists."
The Maccabean Legacy "The fourth philosophy" was by no means the only viable
political-religious point of view in Jesus' time. It did, however, represent
one branch, one particular viewpoint of a much larger understanding of God, of
the world, and of man's role in it. Other groups such as the Pharisees and
Essenes—and later even the Christians—turned the same framework of thought in
sharply different directions. Only the Sadducees stood apart. The roots of this
shared understanding of the world reach all the way back to the time of the
Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., but like much else in Judaism of
the period, the Maccabean revolt had brought it to flower. Among the Maccabees'
staunchest allies at that time had been a party called the Hasidim, literally,
"the pious ones." (This ancient group should not be confused with
Hasidic Jews of modern times.) The Hasidim were primarily teachers and
interpreters of the Torah before they allied themselves with Judas Maccabeus
and his rebels in the struggle to restore the Torah after it had been outlawed
by the Seleucid king. The First Book of Maccabees, possibly written in the second
century B.C., describes them as "mighty warriors of Israel, everyone who
offered himself willingly for the law."
But for all their readiness with the sword, there was a profound
spirituality and trust in God that underlay their commitment. This dual aspect
of their character is exemplified in the Book of Daniel, one of the surviving
documents from this troubled period, which scholars attribute to the Hasidim.
The story is set in the time of the Babylonian exile. It tells of the hero,
Daniel, steadfast in his faith, careful in his obedience to dietary laws,
persistent in his prayers to God alone. In face of inescapable dangers brought
upon him by pagan enemies, who threw him into a den of lions, God delivers him.
His faithful compatriots, similarly persecuted, are saved from a fiery furnace.
The lesson was clear: keep faith, even under the cruel persecutions of
conquerors. But the book is more than a collection of inspiring stories. It
also contains visions that interpret the course of history up to the time of
the Hasidim. In spite of all of Daniel's excellence and deep faith, power still
lay with his pagan persecutors. Daniel and his compatriots are still in exile,
still under the domination of pagan powers—but eventually, the story reveals,
God will intervene at his own chosen moment and reclaim the course of history
and bring blessings to those who have been faithful. The final vision of the
book describes a day when "many of those who sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the
firmament." In spite of the fact that to many modern ears such visions
might seem strange, they were expressions of that understanding of God and the
world that led the Maccabees and the Hasidim into battle, that fired the zeal
of Judas the Galilean against the Romans, that called the Essenes out into the
desert, and that inspired John the Baptist to cry, "Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand." The assurance that the sufferings of the
present are temporary and that what is of absolute importance is the struggle
to be true to God's covenant, even against overwhelming odds, burned in the
heart of the Maccabean martyrs, as it did in so many of their spiritual
descendants.
The Hereditary
Priesthood This widely held belief did
not, however, settle all religious and political differences among the Jews,
not even for those who shared the belief. The fact that there was great concern
not only for the preservation of the law but also for its complete
implementation meant that many details of observance were important. Just as in
modern times, when everyone in a nation may share a common constitution and
legal system yet follow sharply different political and legal philosophies that
affect their interpretation of their laws, so in that time, also, the areas for
disagreement were vast. One point of shattering dissension focused on the
office of the high priest. In the period before the Maccabean revolt the high
priest had been head of state, combining the chief governmental and religious
functions in a single individual. By ancient hereditary right and scriptural
precedent, the position belonged to a direct descendant of Zadok, who had been
chief priest in Solomon's time. Indeed the whole priesthood in the Jerusalem
Temple belonged to the family of Zadok. When the Seleucids placed in the office
of high priest a man not of the Zadokite family, a major spark was struck for
the Maccabean revolt and for the involvement of the Hasidim. In the wake of
their victory, when the triumphant Maccabees claimed the title for themselves,
some of the Hasidim and their followers felt betrayed—their erstwhile allies
were breaking an honored and binding tradition and thus becoming usurpers of a
holy office. The name Zadok and all that it implied became a divisive religious
and political issue that remained for decades.
One can imagine the disgust of the older priestly nobility at seeing
their noble office of high priest taken over by the Hasmoneans (as the
descendants of Mattathias were called), upstart people allied with the Hasidim
and their interpretations of the Torah. In spite of their setbacks as
aristocrats caught in the backwash of a people's revolution, however, these
wealthy priestly families remained in place. They were pragmatists above all
and gradually moved to consolidate their political and religious position so as
to regain the preeminence they believed was rightfully theirs. The outcome of all the religious renewal and
ferment caused by the Maccabean revolt was the growth of three major religious
and political parties in Judaism. The Hasidim split into two groups over the
issues of the high priesthood. One group emphasized priestly leadership and
demanded the restoration of a pure Zadokite priesthood in Jerusalem— these became the Essenes. The group of
primarily non-priestly Hasidim that remained loyal to the early Hasmoneans
became the Pharisees. In spite of their differences, both groups shared the
Hasidim's legacy of emphasis on renewal of the Torah and adaptation and
expansion of the laws by the interpretation of Scripture. Against these two
groups arose the aristocratic party, the Sadducees, who evidently took their
very name from Zadok and thus indicated their own claim to priestly tradition.
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